Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Back to the World of Study

Booths Poverty Map of London Booths Poverty Map of London

The last few months have been crazy.I received my unconditional offer to continue studying Architecture at London Metropolitan university but instead of taking the normal route of a Part 2 Professional diploma in Architecture I decided to combine it with the Masters in Spatial Planning and Urban Design.I have really found my interest in wanting to really understand the wider context of the landscape Urban or Rural and the impacts of development upon an area and want to dig deeper into the complex nature of the planning system and its continual development and historical context behind development plans set by central and local government.

I guess I am hoping that this more specific element of the course will enable me to bridge that gap between architect and designer.Perhaps leading me into a new career direction, although architecture is my love this process of researching and understanding the need for more propositional design within the city is opening my eyes to what architecture is, I suppose I already understood its impact upon the local and wider context but I am finding I am able to explain and evaluate situations to others with more confidence.Perhaps the media has a role to play in people’s perceptions of what architecture is/or isn’t.The validity and need for good design/a good architect is so often disregarded in favour of cost cutting.Design is not how pretty something looks in plan, we do not view and experience our world in this way.Perhaps my future role will be the intermediary between the platforms of design, the developer, the planner/planning system and the architect.If the Localism bill works could I perhaps work within local communities on a consulting level acting as a voice for their concerns and desires for their community and working independent of but with the developer.

Change has to take place within the built environment, pressure on land for housing need and community facilities in conjunction with expansion of our towns and cities prevented by Greenbelt land means higher density/ more efficient use of our existing brownfield sites is inevitable.Nibyism is an inevitable barrier that has to be addressed because development is always going to take place near somebodies back yard if we are to make use of viable and valuable sites within the built environment.